A family travels from Florida to New Zealand aboard their St Francis 50 catamaran

Aitutaki

David08/25/2008, Aitutaki, Cook Islands

We are at Aitutaki after one of our shortest and roughest passages. 145miles. We are the only boat here which is another first. We have an anchor off the bow and a line to a palm tree as even though we are the only boat there is no room to wander.

Sarah and Sunny and Jim and Snowball are hoping you guys are doing well, sounds like you are still having lots of fun. We miss you guys a lot. Lets hear from you ,, Love ,, the Browns

08/27/2008 | paola

SALUT LES BEAUX,

WE JUST CAME BACK FROM VACATION AND I WAS READING YOUR LAST ENTRIES. BEAUTIFUL. WE MISS YOU. WHERE ARE YOU HEADING TO NOW? BISOUS, BISOUS A TOUS, PAOLA & PHIL

09/02/2008 | Bonnie and Jorge Aladro

Dave and Nathalie
Jorge and I have been watching your travels. It is always good to see when you have arived to a safe passage. Looks like so much fun. Give the kids our Love and Kisses. Love Bonnie & Jorge

Rarotonga quaint little town

Nathalie08/20/2008, Cook Islands

I love Rarotonga! The town is small, pretty, has nice restaurants and shops.... And most of all the people are so nice and welcoming! Yesterday we witnessed the arrival of an old time sailing pirogue that left the Samoa islands and came all the way to Rarotonga with 16 sailors (2 women among them), it was a ceremony with songs, speech and food. It is very similar to French Polynesia (as far as the singing, the intonation of the speech and the men dancing) but the women are much more covered... Rarotonga is a country of the common wealth with strong connection with New Zealand (their money is the New Zealand Dollar, although they have some of their own bills and coins and a one cook island dollar representing a tiki with strong manhood! Surprising...) The country economy seems more vibrant than French Polynesia, the people are also much more industrious and ambitious if I may say, the prices are of course cheaper so the tourists are more receptive to spend some money (especially among us, cruisers, with a long term budget in mind). No swimming here, however there are some beaches around the island, the nicest being on the south east, but nothing like Bora Bora for snorkeling. The inside of the island is very lush and beautiful, you can see papaya trees (called pow-pow) and lots of fields of Taro (sort of roots similar to potatoes).
J'adore Rarotonga! C'est une jolie petite ville avec de bons restaurants et de jolis petits magazins... Et puis surtout, nous avons retrouves la gentillesse et l'accueil des polynesiens. Hier nous avons eu la chance d'assiter a l'arrivee d'une ancienne pirogue a voile venant des iles Samoa, l'equipage de 16 comprenaient 2 femmes et ils sont venus sans moteur, tout a la voile. La ceremonie d'acceuil etait tres belle avec des chants, des fleurs, et les hommes ont dances traditionellement, cela ressemble beaucoup a la polynesie francaise (les rhytmes, les intonations, les chants, les danses marquesiennes des hommes, mais les femmes sont beaucoup plus couvertes.) rarotonga est un pays du Common Wealth soutenu par la Nouvelle Zelande (leur money est le dollar new zelandais, mais ils ont certains billets et pieces propres aux Cook islands, leur piece de un cook island dollarest tres explicite: un Tiki avec de tres grosses et voyantes parties sexuelles!) L'economie du pays semble beaucoup plus florissante que la polynesie francaise, et les habitants des cook sont beaucoup plus energiques et ambitieux si je puis me permettre (je sais, la verite n'est pas toujours bonne a dire!).Les prix sont beaucoup plus abordables et du coup le tourisme est en plein boom, nous le voyons aussi parmi les voyageurs qui ont un budget a long terme comme nous, nous sommes beaucoup plus enclin a depense ici (location d'une mobylette -vespa $85 par semaine par exemple, a Tahiti, ce serait pour la journee!). Par contre les fonds sous -marins ne sont pas tres chouettes a Rarotonga meme, ce n'est pas l'endoit pour profiter de l'eau bien qu'il y ait de jolies plages dans le sud est de l'ile. L'interieur de l'ile est splendide, tres verte, tropicale, beaucoup de cultures (essentiellement les arbres a papayes et le taro- une sorte de tubercule).

This morning finds us with comfortable seas but the wind is so light it puts the apparent wind on the nose with the engine running. Thoughts of a Saturday morning arrival are gone and we are hoping for Saturday before dark! Only 148 miles last 24 hours 192 miles to go.
The lighter wind and sea allowed the kids to work hard today!
Enfin le vent s'est calme et les enfants peuvent travailler! Notre espoir d'arrivee samedi matin s'est evanouit avec la disparition du vent mais entre 30 noeuds et rien, je choisis.... le moteur....

Well it was very rough for the first 18 hours and now 24 hours into the trip it is starting to calm down. We were the only boat to leave Bora Bora yesterday due to the high winds. The only problem for the boats that waited for today or tomorrow is they may not have enough wind. Our wind has already dropped to 14-18 knots, down from 24-30 knots yesterday. It's always a hard decision when to leave on a passage. We left the minute we dropped Nathalie's family at the airport ferry. Sometimes better not to wait for perfect weather as it may get worse. Of course I am getting ahead of myself as we are only 24 hours into a 3+ day passage. 340 miles to go, 195 miles covered the past 24 hours.
It was very sad to say goodbye, I always have a hard time when I leave my family in France but this time was the hardest, maybe just because I feel so far away (13000 miles) but they know that they are always so closed in my thoughts and heart....I haven't spend that much time with my brother since 20 years and it felt so good to see him and his family, of course Mom was in Heaven with her four grandchildren even when the decibels went sky high! But it was time for the plane to leave and for us to continue on our voyage...Goodbye French Polynesia and Hello Cook islands.... The first day was a very fast and uncomfortable sail with 30 knots of wind but the next day we had to use the motor we are now almost there (30 miles to go, total trip 536 miles) and it feels good to arrive in port and be expected by friends, Orca III and Malachi will be there and we are probably going to moore right in between them both in this tight little harbor of Rarotonga. During this passage, the kids really participate (they always do through their watch and Alec has always been very interested by the sail change and navigation) but I saw a change in Emilie, she reefed the sail, help with the spinnaker, with the screecher(on this trip we had all sail combination!!!), she came a long way from being totally indifferent like at the beginning of the trip when it was really not her cup of tea...
Je suis toujours tres triste lorsque ma famille s'en va mais cette fois, cela a ete tres dur! Peut-etre car 13,000 miles nous separent maintenant, pourtant ils sont toujours si proches dans mon coeur et mes pensees. Cela fait 20 ans que je n'ai pas passé autant de temps avec mon frere et cela m'a fait un immense plaisir de le voir avec sa famille, il n'a pas change, toujours aussi genereux, gai et amusant. Et Maman a bien sur ete tres heureuse de retrouver ces quatre petits enfants meme si les decibels etaient un peu fort par moment! Mais il est temps de repartir, notre prochaine etape etant les iles Cook (NZ)... Le permier jour a ete tres rapide et inconfortable, un vent de 30 noeuds et une houle de cote, la totale!... et puis le lendemain... au moteur, aujourd'hui (le troisieme jour), les conditions sont ideales, l'ocean est presque plat et le vent de 12 noeuds de travers nous donne une vitesse de 8.5 noeuds avec le screecher, les enfants font leur devoirs.... C'est tres agreable de savoir que nos bateaux amis sont déjà la pour nous acueillir dans le petit port tres etroit de Rarotonga (Orca III et Malachi), ils nous attendent avec une petite place juste entre eux deux...J'ai remarque un changement important Durant ce dernier passage, les enfants font pratiquement toutes les manoeuvres avec leur pere maintenant (ils ont toujours assure leur garde la nuit et Alec a toujours ete interesse par les changement de voile et la navigation) mais Emilie cette fois s'est vraiment mise a l'oeuvre: mettant le rie, ajustant le screecher, aidant avec le spi, ellea bien change depuis notre depart ou elle etait completement indifferente a toutes les manoeuvres...